When the Academic Ranking of World Universities was released last week, more than half of Australia’s universities appeared in the highly prestigious top 500. That’s quite an extraordinary achievement for a country as small as ours, but might leave future students scratching their heads and wondering, well, was there something wrong with the others?
Australian Universities All Have High Standards
Badging yourself as a university in Australia is protected by law and requires institutions to have robust quality control and meet strict standards, so none of our universities are poor quality – and certainly not prone to the kinds of issues besetting elements of the private higher education sector.
The Economist claimed a few years ago that:
Australia’s universities, like its wine, are decent and dependable, but seldom excellent.
While that sentiment might play well to an education minister bent on pushing some institutions into the rankings stratosphere at the expense, in funding terms, of others, it is somewhat unfair. Historically, Australia has aimed to have an excellent university sector, rather than put all of its eggs into a few sandstone baskets.
